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January 29, 2008

Who's going to score?

Against the Grizzlies, scoring wasn't a problem. But with Devin Harris out for up to three weeks, it now will be fascinating to watch and see if the Mavericks' offense is affected. Harris is the fourth leading scorer at 14.4 points a game and those points have to be replaced. So does the 9.9 points Jerry Stackhouse averages.

So what will happen? The best guess here is that Josh Howard's average is about to increase. Dirk Nowitzki has scored 20 or more points in 14 straight games and Howard has accomplished the feat in the last five games.

Howard went through a period about two weeks ago when he missed a game because of a death in his family, and then managed only 11 and 17 points in the next two games. Since then, however, he has averaged 25.0 in the five games.

"Josh is fine," Avery Johnson said. "He went through a tough period there and had some
things he had to manage. We talked about it and he came back to us and wasn't
really in rhythm, but he’s in rhythm now. He’s strong. . . . He's playing on both ends and really having a lot of fun. He’s locked in right
now. He’s in a good place mentally and physically. He’s gotten stronger because
he’s lifted wieghts this year more than he has any other year"